Rams' Running Back Leaves MVP Impression With 49ers

David Steele, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Monday, October 30, 2000

Contrary to popular belief, the NFL's most valuable player was in a Rams uniform yesterday at 3Com Park. His pinkie wasn't broken; he wasn't wearing a headset, and he wasn't being replaced as the starter by Trent Green.

That was quarterback Kurt Warner, the man who won the league's MVP award and the Super Bowl MVP last season. The true MVP, by consensus of the 49ers team he beat yesterday, is running back Marshall Faulk.

"Kurt Warner's an incredible story. Everyone liked the Kurt Warner story," said 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora, acknowledging that the Rams' rags-to-riches quarterback deserved the accolades he received. "So Marshall kind of gets shuffled in the back, and he shouldn't. . . . It's hard not to say that Marshall Faulk is the best player in the NFL right now."

Faulk absolutely was the most important player on the Rams yesterday, because Warner was out and Green -- who was starting a regular-season game for the Rams for the first time -- was in. Although the St. Louis offense originally was designed around Green before his preseason knee injury last year opened the door for Warner, Faulk's productivity on the ground and in pass routes was essential to make things easier while Green got his feet under him again.

"We always ask a lot of things of Marshall, but he was important in that role today," head coach Mike Martz said. "We didn't want to do anything different than we do with Kurt, but we wanted the ball in Marshall's hands as much as possible, doing the things he always does."

And Faulk did precisely that: He ran for 83 very tough yards yesterday, scored twice on one-yard runs and caught six passes for 61 more yards, including two game-breaking scores produced when he lined up in a slot and, later, as a wideout. The total yards from scrimmage actually came up short of the NFL-best average of 168.9 he brought into the game, but the four touchdowns tied a franchise record.

Faulk did all this with a bruised knee and a partially separated shoulder -- neither of which seemed to have slowed his tremendous speed or bother him on his touchdown receptions. Plus, the field was wet and the turf loose in some spots because of all the rain last week; Mora joked about begging the groundskeeper to pour the water off the tarp onto the field to help the 49ers deal with Faulk and his teammates.

"He must be Superman," Martz said of Faulk, who now has a combined 1,326 yards rushing and receiving -- keeping him on pace to break the NFL record of 2,429 yards he set last season -- and 14 touchdowns.

More crucial than the numbers was the way Faulk forced the 49ers to keep an eye glued to him on every snap.

"He's their key guy," strong safety Lance Schulters said. "They have him do all types of things, and they get him the ball any way possible. He took the pressure off the other receivers. They didn't really do anything."

Certainly, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Az Hakim didn't do nearly the damage Faulk did. Even on the half-dozen or so plays in which Faulk splits wide, he rarely does precisely the kind of damage he did yesterday. The fact that he can beat NFL cornerbacks and force defenses to change their coverages -- as the 49ers tried to do just before his 19-yard scoring play that tied the game 24-24 in the third quarter. There have been times when he is flanked out with the receivers the Rams normally use in their four-receiver set, and it can be impossible to defend, whether a team has time to map out a strategy or not.

"He's got to be one of the best runners in pro football today," Bruce said. "Running and catching -- you've got to give him credit, he came through big today."